


Marshmallow Fluff

by ArrowfanDB



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Some Post Movie/ TDTL
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:56:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4595466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArrowfanDB/pseuds/ArrowfanDB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My collection of random shorts. Most previously posted on FF.net and most written for the vmficrecs monthly challenges. LoVe focused and with some speculation for the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fleet Week

Then...

Really Lily? Fleet Week?

"Come on, Veronica Mars. You're delaying the gratification of the many sailors! They are waiting for me, they just don't know it!"

Another day, another adventure in the friendship of Lilly Kane and Veronica Mars.

"How does Logan feel about our little excursion, Lilly?"

"Logan who?" Said the blonde. She was wearing barely there jean shorts and a red and white striped halter top that showed off her... assets.

"Are you arguing again, Lilly? Why don't you cut him some slack?" Veronica said, rolling her eyes as she pulled her long hair back into a pony tail. It was going to be hot and windy down by the water in the sun and she didn't want to deal with it. She was wearing a jean skirt and a white polo with a flag scarf around her neck.

"It is Fleet Week, Veronica! I can't have a boyfriend during Fleet Week! This way we're both single!" Lilly referenced Veronica's break up-or lack thereof- with her brother in an offhand way that made Veronica wince. Duncan had simply stopped talking to her. No explanation and Lilly claimed not to know. She was an accomplished liar. though not usually to Veronica. Evidently Lilly had decided that Fleet Week was the best distraction for Veronica.

"Alright, let's go."

"Finally!"

The Navy Air Station was packed with people and the girls started walking towards the ships and crowds of people. Lilly stopping and taking pictures every few steps with cute military guys. Veronica pulled out her camera and started taking pictures. There were kids running around waving flags and eating ice cream, pretzels and hot dogs. Ice cream. Where did they get that?

"I can take you on a tour of our ship if you want. You can see our big guns." Veronica overheard one of the sailors tell Lilly. Veronica rolled her eyes and pulled Lilly away.

"Let's head this way, I think there is ice cream." Veronica said. While she was talking, there came a loud rumbling sound that grew louder and louder. Veronica shaded her eyes and then quickly brought her camera up to try to capture the fighter jets flying directly overhead. The flyby caused a loud cheer to sweep the crowd as everyone stopped to watch.

Veronica wandered a bit away from Lilly as she tried to pull Veronica into flirtation with yet another group of sailors. Lilly's beauty and personality always garnered attention and Veronica was used to being in the background. She liked it, actually. Being unnoticed allowed her to observe other people. Veronica was fascinated by the group of what had to be pilots standing by a line of jets on the air field. "Lilly, look, Fighter pilots!" This got Lilly's attention and she immediately sauntered over to them.

Veronica was distracted by a little blonde boy, who looked about five. He was studying the plane and having a very animated conversation about the missiles, engines and paintings on the plane with what looked like his dad. The kid was jumping back and forth and grinning like nothing else mattered. Veronica snapped a picture trying to capture the joy and excitement of the kid.

She was so focused on the picture that she didn't notice someone in her way until she slammed into him.

"Logan! What are you doing here?" Veronica exclaimed. She hoped Lilly was done flirting with the pilots or that she could steer Logan in the opposite direction. It really wasn't nice to have your ex flirtation shoved in your face.

"Oh, you know. Bored. Just thought I'd come check out the planes. They're pretty badass. I wonder what it'd be like to fly one." Logan said. Then he looked around. "Where's your evil twin? How many sailors has she picked up so far." He said it without much emotion, but his hands were shoved deep in his pockets and his shoulders were hunched.

"How'd you know she was here?" Veronica tried to ignore his question.

"Where you go, she goes. Where she goes, you go. Plus, I don't think coming here was your idea. Even if there is ice cream." Logan's hand came out of his pocket and started playing with the ends of her scarf.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, I'm not in the mood to deal with her. See you around, Veronica." Logan turned and walked away into the crowd of people.

Veronica sighed. She wished her friends would stop hurting each other. Or rather, she wished Lilly would stop hurting Logan. He didn't deserve it.

"Veronica Mars! Come meet these lovely men." Lilly called from the crowd behind her.

Veronica rolled her eyes and smiled. Well, it was Fleet Week after all.

Now...

The last time Veronica had been at Fleet Week, she'd been with Lilly. She'd been wearing a flag scarf and she'd run into Logan staring at a fighter jet.

How things had changed. Today she was wearing a cupcake dress, as Logan liked to call them. Blue with big white polka dots on the skirt and a red blouse that showed just a hint of skin. She had a brief flashback to a little blonde boy talking animatedly about missiles and engines. But that was what she was listening to at the moment. "They go so fast, Veronica. So fast. And they are so loud! I saw one once fly by and it shook the whole building!" Her brother, Hunter, was talking so animatedly and so fast that Veronica had to concentrate on what he was saying while still heading in the direction of the planes he was so captivated by.

"You'll have to ask Logan all about them." Veronica grinned down at him. Having a half-brother had taken a bit to get used to, but he was a good kid and his excitement over the planes and ships was contagious. She loved when he was able to act like the kid he was. He'd experienced too much negativity in his short life.

"There he is!" Hunter shouted and let go of Veronica's hand. He ran at Logan who crouched down to talk to him on his own level. Wearing his flight suit, Logan looked very official. And HOT. Veronica couldn't hear them yet, but she could see Logan's grin. He started walking around the plane pointing things out to Hunter. Veronica pulled out her camera and took some shots of two of the most important people in her life. She smiled at the display on the camera and then went to join them.

"Hey, Sugarpuss." Logan leaned over to give her a brief kiss. "Nice dress." His eyes skimmed up her body and lingered a bit on her neckline.

Veronica grinned at him. "Hello, flyboy. Hang out here often? Can I see your big guns?"

"Anytime you want," he smirked at her. Hunter grabbed his attention and asked about the markings on the plane. Veronica listened intently as well. Sometimes it was still hard to believe that Logan was in the Navy. Even though they'd been through a deployment and day to day military life for a while. Then again, she couldn't really imagine him today without the Navy either. It was such a huge part of him now. He loved his jets. She remembered the conversation that she and Logan had that day so long ago.

Logan caught her small smile and looked questioningly at her.

She shrugged, "You were right. The planes are pretty badass."

He smiled and threw his arm around her shoulders and squeezed as he continued to answer Hunters endless questions.

Hunter turned to Veronica after a while. "Can we get ice cream?"


	2. Cheesecake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He looked at his phone, turned pale, then quickly left the room. She watched him, smiling... VMficrecs September 2014 challenge- 4e Pure Fluff- Spoilers- Veronica Mars Movie. Disclaimer- I am just a fan, borrowing some characters.

He looked at his phone, turned pale, then quickly left the room. She watched him, smiling. He walked back in a minute later holding an overnight bag and a pillow.

"A pillow?"

"You never know. I want to be prepared."

"Must be all those years in the Navy."

"I'm not sure they prepared me for this." He said walking over to her and sitting gingerly on the couch next to her. As he sat, she gripped his hand tightly and then tapped the screen of her phone where she had an ap open.

He grabbed her phone and looked at it. "Three hours?" He said incredulously. "You've been tracking them for three hours? And you're just now TEXTING me? Text, Veronica?"

She breathed through her nose as she concentrated on the ocean outside the window. "I think I want to take a walk. Maybe go get some cheesecake." She said when she knew she could keep her voice steady. She tapped the her phone again.

"Are you serious?" Logan looked at her to gauge her snark level.

"Yup. Feeling like some Adam's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake. You feel like Key Lime, in case you were wondering. You can share. I need to pee." She swung her feet onto the floor. "No calls to anyone yet. It might be a false alarm." He grabbed her hands and helped her stand up., running his finger unconsciously over the flat band on her left hand, feeling the slightly rough channel set diamonds were. Mine.

She walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. Just as calm as always. His heart was pounding, but he was calm too. They could do this. Not that they had a choice at this point. It was go time. Or almost. After food, of course.

He went to put the bag and pillow (She was picky about them- even if she wouldn't admit it.) In the car, expecting her to be in the living room again ready to go. She wasn't.

"Veronica?" He found her leaning over grasping the sides of the sink with her head down and her eyes closed. "Veronica?" He reached out a hand to rub her back.

"Don't. Don't touch me right now." She ground out and he froze. After a minute or so she breathed out and stood up. "Sorry," as she reached up to kiss him, "I can't concentrate when you touch me. " He smirked and then ran his hand down her arm. "Cheesecake?"

"Yeah. It's my last chance to eat it without feeling bad." She started to move towards the door of the house.

"When has that stopped you before?" He inquired. She smacked his arm. "Ow. None of that, You have to be a role model now." She paused outside a doorway and looked in at the blue walls with turtles and fish outlined on them. He reached down to put his arms around her. "Ready?

"Probably not. But here we go." She said. Then she smiled. "You?"

"Yes. I am."

They walked around the outdoor mall for a while after they had eaten (She had eaten) the cheesecake. Every few minutes she would pause and tap her phone. Sometimes she would hold his hand, sometimes she would lean against him, sometimes she'd step away from him. He just tried to follow her lead and not be anxious. Much.

"Veronica. I think it's time to head in. They're getting closer. And you're having a harder time." Logan took her phone from her. "Veronica. We're at every five minutes or so. We're going now." He expected her to argue and decided that he was definitely right when she didn't.

"Keith? We're heading to the hospital." He looked at Veronica who had stopped again. "Yeah. I think so. Okay. I'll call you once we've been checked out." He hung up.

"Did we bring my car because you're afraid my water will break in your precious?" Veronica was able to talk once again. The pressure she'd been feeling wasn't letting up as easily now. He was right. It was time to head to the hospital.

"Yep." He helped her into the passenger seat and then jogged around to his side taking a deep breath before he got in the car. He eased out of the lot and then sped towards the hospital.

Fifteen Hours later

Flying jets wasn't as nerve wracking as this. Give him enemy fire any day. All he could do was brush hair out of her eyes and encourage her. He looked at the nurse that came in to check. The epidural had helped. A Lot. Thank God for that. She had lasted a long time before asking for it, which was exactly as they planned. Since the medicine had taken effect, she'd been able to rest a bit. He kept his eyes on the monitors and could see another contraction building. She looked exhausted, as well she should, she'd had almost twenty hours of contractions at this point.

"Logan?" He looked at her and she smiled at him. "I love you." And even though he'd been hearing her say it for three years, every time was a gift he never took for granted.

" I love you too, Veronica."

"Okay Veronica, it looks like you're ready to start pushing." the nurse said.

"Really?" Veronica and Logan spoke together. "Okay." Veronica took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Trying to remember what the midwife had explained about how to push. Then she mentally shrugged. That's what the nurses were for, right? To help her know how to do it right.

Logan grabbed his phone to text Keith, Mac and Wallace.

The nurse looked at them both and smiled. "It's still going to be a while." And then she started getting things ready and laying out instruments. When she turned on the baby warming bed, Veronica saw and commented.

"I'd really like skin to skin time immediately after he's born." She said

"Oh yes. That is hospital policy as long as everything is okay with you both." The nurse said. "This warmer is for afterwards when we clean him up."

93 minutes later

"Veronica. Look at this. Look at what you did." Logan's hand was resting on William (Billy)'s back as he nestled into Veronica's chest. The baby was still gross and sticky and it mattered not at all.

"We did. We did it. Together." Happy tears streamed down her face as she placed a hand on top of Logan's. "Thank you. Thank you for calling. For convincing me that we can do this." She gazed into the brown eyes that she loved so much and grinned at him through her tears.

Logan leaned over and kissed her. "Love you."

Six days later

"He has your appetite." Logan said as he rolled out of bed for the third time that night to change and get the baby ready for Veronica. "Hey buddy." He picked up the baby gently, still marveling at the tiny human they had created. Billy mewled loudly at him, his fists punching at invisible foes. "And my penchant for punching."

Logan had watched what felt like several hours of You Tube videos on the best way to swaddle, but it was the nurse at the hospital that really helped him with it.

"One burrito baby, ready for food. Do you need anything?" He said presenting the baby to Veronica, who was now nestled in a big cushy chair with a nursing stool at her feet ("what? it helps my nursing posture," she'd scoffed when she bought it after realizing that her feet didn't touch the ground when she sat in the chair.) and the nursing pillow already in place. He laid back on their bed, but didn't expect to sleep until Veronica was back in bed with him. He just watched them. His family. He'd never get enough of it. Something pinged next to the bed and he reached over and grabbed it. Who was texting him at 3am?

He looked at his phone, turned pale, then quickly left the room. She watched him, smiling when he came back with a Nutella and banana sandwich and a large glass of milk.

"Can't have you passing out from hunger now, can we?" He said indicating her text.

"Nope." she said as she adjusted the baby to a more comfortable position. It was still very new to both of them. As she looked down at their son, she couldn't help but think how lucky she was. They were a family. She'd never get enough of it.


	3. Forts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snapshots from Veronica's life- all about blanket forts. - Love- fluff- post TDTL- October VMFICRECS challenge.

Written for the October VMFicRecs challenge- Option 2- Picture Challenge- Blanket Fort

Disclaimer- I'm just borrowing characters.

Blanket fort:

When Veronica and Lilly were 8 and 9, respectively, they decided to build a fort in the living room at Veronica's house. They had it all setup, but when they got inside, it collapsed. Veronica's dad, Keith, came in to find them huddled under the blankets giggling. Two blonde heads emerged eventually and explained what had happened. Veronica tilted her head to the side when she looked at him and he knew he'd be building the fort with them in 30 seconds.

Keith helped them to rebuild their fort to be more stable and brought them popcorn to go with it. A few minutes later, the roof of their fort lit up like it was covered in stars. Keith had found some twinkle lights in the garage and added them to the roof of the fort.

That summer, to the chagrin of Celeste Kane, Lilly's mother, the girls spent most of their time together in the fort. It was a castle, a pyramid, a fortress and everything in between. The fort stayed built in the Mars living room until their dog, Sidekick, jumped on the girls one day when they were inside.

When Veronica was 13, she broke her ankle on the soccer field. Lilly had given up soccer the year before, but was in the stands to cheer Veronica on and to practice flirting on the boys team. Logan was there too, presumably to watch Duncan's game, but really because he wanted to flirt with Lilly and because he loved watching tiny Veronica Mars dominate people on the soccer field wearing her cute little shorts and knee socks. He saw her go down in the tangle of girls fighting for the ball and lept off the benches when he saw her stay down when she was always (ALWAYS) the first one back on her feet after a tackle. He ignored the coaches yell as he raced onto the field to where she was holding her ankle. She wasn't crying, but he could see the way she was holding her body that she was hurting. He knelt at her side and started taking off her shoe as carefully as he could. He knew they needed to get it off before the ankle swelled more. One solitary tear fell as he got her shoe off and Logan whispered sorry under his breath as he picked her up and carried her over the bench while Lilly called Keith.

Veronica was confined to bed or the sofa for a week while the swelling in her ankle went down far enough to cast. Logan, Duncan and Lilly made it their personal duty to keep the blonde in good spirits. She just wasn't used to sitting still for so long.

80's movies, musicals and South Park had run their course and Veronica was starting to get cranky. Even with Lilly. Logan just kept bringing her more ice cream and Duncan sat on the recliner and read, ignoring Lilly and Logan's attempts to cheer Veronica up.

Five days into her prescribed bed rest, Veronica was going crazy. Her dad agreed to let her spend the night at Lilly's after speaking with Celeste and guaranteeing that it was okay for the girls to sleep in the living room so that Veronica could keep her foot elevated. Lilly enlisted Logan and Duncan to help with her plan to cheer Veronica up.

Logan spent as much time at the Kane mansion as he could, especially over the summer, so he was listening when Keith helped Veronica in to the house with her bag and crutches. He grabbed his new digital camcorder off the counter where he and Duncan had left it after filming each other doing flips into the pool, and slipped ahead of Veronica into the living room where Duncan and Lilly waited.

"Yes, dad, I have my medicine. Yes, dad, I have my toothbrush. I'll call you if I can't sleep." Veronica sounded pretty annoyed still, but Logan knew that she'd soon be distracted. He grinned as she came around the corner into the room.

"Holy Guacamole!" Lilly and Logan burst into laughter at the exclamation. Only Veronica Mars would say Holy Guacamole at 13. She was such a good girl, he rolled his eyes, but her face was priceless when she took in what her friends had created in the room. Celeste had left earlier that day for a spa weekend to relax and the Kanes and Logan had quickly taken over the living room. The housekeeper was used to their antics and Jake Kane, Lilly and Duncan's dad, wouldn't bat an eyelash at the state of his living room. If he even bothered to check on them.

Lilly, Logan and Duncan had pilfered all the flat sheets from the linen closet and used them to create a fort in the room. They had attached all the sheets to the chandelier in the center of the room and it looked like a gigantic tent. Lilly had remembered Keith's lights and had strung them all around the fort as well.

"You built our fort again!" Veronica lit up at the sight. The three others grinned at each other, pleased with her reaction. "This is great!" She started to move into the room, but Logan put down his camera and grabbed her crutches stashing them out of the way and picked her up.

"Logan. You need to stop carting me around like a sack of potatoes." Veronica laughed.

"Please, Ronnie, potatoes weigh less than you do. You're such a wee thing." Logan said as he gently deposited her on the sofa.

"Hey now, no size jokes. Not all of us can grow five inches in two months. " Veronica said as she wiggled to get comfy on the couch.

"Alright boys. Out. It's our time now." Lilly said trying to shoo the boys out. Logan looked at her like she was crazy. "No way, Lil. We helped you build this thing, we're staying to reap the benefits."

"Oh? So what color are you going to paint your nails, Echolls? Which scent do you want for your face mask? Ooh, can you braid?" Lilly walked closer and closer to him as she spoke, until she was almost touching him. He looked down at her trying to decide how to play it this time. He really wanted to stay with Lilly and Veronica.

"Logan, Lets go play some XBOX. Leave the girls to their thing. " Duncan said trying to stop Lilly and Logan from arguing. Logan stepped back from Lilly and looked at Veronica. "Ronnie, text me when you get tired of the Queen here and want some real entertainment."

Veronica laughed and Lilly bounced over to her. "I've got all the new magazines and we're going to do ALL the quizzes! And I'm going to do your makeup and hair since you can't move away from me!"

"Thanks, Lilly. This is great. We had some great times in that fort!" Veronica smiled at her best friend.

Several hours later, primped and wearing more makeup than she ever had in her life, Veronica was quizzed out and ready for food and a movie. "Goonies? Moulin Rouge?" Lilly asked.

"Goonies, definitely." Said Logan as he bounded into the room.

"Who said you could join us?" Lilly asked loftily.

"You did when you asked us to help build this fort. You've kicked us out of it for long enough. I want to enjoy my hard work." Logan settled himself next to Veronica on the sofa, careful not to jostle her ankle.

"Fine, but you have to make the popcorn." Lilly said putting the movie on.

"Extra..." Veronica began.

"Extra butter and salt, I know, Veronica, I've been around long enough to know how you demand your popcorn." Logan said as he got up again. When he came back Lilly was in his spot on the sofa. "Move it, Lilly, That's my spot. You won't be able to sit still enough to not hurt Ronnie's ankle." Lilly roller her eyes, but moved to Logan's other side. Duncan wandered in and sat on the far side of the sofa next to Lilly. They all propped their feet on the ottoman Logan had dragged close to the sofa for Veronica's foot to rest on.

As the movie started, Logan stretched his arms over the back of the sofa and the girls settled in comfortably on either side of him. The menu screen was on the TV when he woke later that night. He was still on the sofa and both Lilly and Veronica were asleep on either side of him. Veronica was curled slightly in to him and it was her hair that had woken him. It was tickling his nose. He carefully brushed it out of the way, not wanting to wake either girl. The only lights were the twinkle lights in the fort made to look like stars. He glanced over at Duncan and saw him passed out as well. Logan smiled. Here was his real family. Here was who he could escape to and be himself. He closed his eyes again and snuggled his girls into him a bit more. Life was good.

He woke the next morning and Lilly was asleep on the ground and Veronica was almost on top of him. He checked out her leg to make sure it was still elevated and then shifted uncomfortably. Logan wasn't used to waking up with a girl. His body's normal reaction might make things awkward, so he tried to move Veronica without waking her up. Her eyes fluttered as he shifted her and she stretched.

"Hmm..morning. Could you grab me my crutches?"

Eager to move away from her, he popped up over the back of the couch so that he didn't step on Lilly. Grabbing her crutches he helped her up then flopped back on the sofa where she had been sitting. It was still warm from her. He stared up at the faint lights still shining through the fort as he listened to her clumping down the hall on her crutches and then closed his eyes, hoping to get a little more sleep.

Veronica walked into her living room after a long day and night tailing a cheating wife. She'd gotten the money shot and was ready for some food and sleep. She dropped the take out on the kitchen counter and went to find her boys. She had Hunter for two weeks this time and was looking forward to the next couple days of no work to catch up with him.

She followed the sound of laughter and noise to the play room and stopped in the doorway. Three boys were sprawled across the floor playing with a huge mass of cars, trucks, firetrucks, trains and planes. It was hard for her to see more than their feet, though because of the fort that they had erected in the room. She grinned at their noisy play and at the fort. She such good memories of other forts and was excited to add to her Blanket Fort Memory collection. Veronica stared at the fort trying to decide what was missing when it came to her.

Without saying anything to them (they still hadn't noticed her) she went out into the garage to look for some lights. Ever since Keith had first put lights on her and Lilly's fort, Veronica had believed that no true fort would be complete without lights. She found what she was looking for and went back into the house, glancing out the windows at the ocean to see where the sun was. Not sunset yet, so she added the lights to the fort, but didn't plug them in.

Then she dropped to her knees and crawled in to join them. She leaned over to Logan and kissed him before giving Hunter a grin and ruffling Billy's hair. "Nice fort. Can I play too?"

"Mama, you can be this firetruck. Daddy's the jet and Hunter is this truck." Billy liked to boss everyone around, not really surprising given who his parents were. They played for about ten minutes before Veronica and Hunter's stomachs gave matching growls. Logan laughed. "I think it's feeding time at the zoo! The bobcat's are my favorite, isn't that right, kitten?" He smiled slowly at her and she smiled back. "Sure is."

They ate at the table, but soon ended up back in the fort. Logan and Hunter had built it so they could be inside and still see the TV. Veronica rounded up pillows and blankets and made them all a comfortable nest on the floor. Billy requested "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 2" and popcorn. "Extra butter and salt, I know." Logan said as he got out the air popper.

Veronica curled into Logan, Billy curled into Veronica and Hunter sprawled slightly to the side as they watched the movie. She smiled and closed her eyes. Here it was. Perfect contentment inside a blanket fort.


	4. Dude, where's your hair?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick doesn't understand where Logan's hair went. Post Series- Movie Spoiler VMFicRecs November 2014 Challenge Super short silly one shot. Bromance

Disclaimer- RT owns all, I'm just borrowing. Short and silly and unbetad

As Logan walked into the beach house he and Dick shared, Dick yelled from the game room where he was playing, "Grab me a beer, man? And there are brownies on the table."

Logan handed the beer to Dick and grabbed the extra controller waiting for a point in the game where they could switch it to a two player.

Dick chugged half the beer quickly while expertly playing the game one handed. After a few minutes he beat the level and went changed the game to two player. While drinking the rest of his beer he turned to Logan to ask how the waves were this morning and instead choked on the beer he was drinking.

"Dude, where's your hair?" He sputtered. Logan's usual gelled hair was gone, replaced by a pretty short buzz cut. "Did the chick you're banging get pissed and take it out on your hair?"

Logan ran his hand over his head as though he was getting used to it too.

"Uh. No. Uh. It's something new I'm trying. I'm going to need to get used to it and thought I'd try it out." He hadn't really looked at Dick yet.

"What do you mean?" Dick was still staring. This was weird. Logan always had good hair. Second only to his own blonde locks, Dick thought as he flicked them out of his eyes out of habit.

"Well. Um. I.. I just joined the Navy." Logan looked over at Dick for the first time.

Dick stared at him for a full minute. Then he grabbed his phone. "It's not April Fools?"

"Nope."

"You joined the Navy."

"Yes."

"The military Navy."

"Yes."

"With boats and shit?" Dick was having major issues grasping this.

"Yep. And fighter jets. Which is what I'm going for. I'm leaving for Officer Candidate School as soon as I graduate Hearst. And I'm going to learn to fly jets." Logan looked serious. But was he actually serious? With Logan, you could never really tell.

"Seriously?" Dick asked.

"Yep. Deadly serious. Like actually deadly." Logan still hadn't cracked a smile.

"But… Why?" Dick had no mechanism to understand what was going on. Logan was almost as rich as he was. He had no need to work. No need to do anything by surf, play games and score chicks. What the fuck was this about? Surely not… Her.

Logan looked down at the controller in his hands and then back at Dick.

"I need to make something of myself. I want to make a difference in the world. A positive difference. I want to be a man... people... would be proud of. A man I'm proud of." He shrugged. "And flying a jet 1000mph sounds pretty fucking awesome." He grinned finally.

Dick was still staring at him. "Sure. Sounds cool." Dick shrugged this time. "How are you going to score chicks with that hair, though?"

"Ladies love a uniform, man." And Logan ran a hand over his head again and turned the game back on.

Dick thought about it for a sec. Jets sounded cool. Chicks loving uniforms sounded cool. But it sounded like a lot of work and lose his hair? No thanks!. He'd keep his hair the way it was.


	5. Whiplash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica comes back to Neptune after six years. AU- Not movie or book canon- LoVe- Fluffy, but mentions of trauma.

AU- Veronica comes back to Neptune after 6 years- Series Spoilers, Movie spoiler, but not canon- RT owns the characters- LoVe- Oneshot

He was leaning in to talk to his Navy buddies when he smelled a long familiar, long remembered scent. He sat up and looked around the bar sharply, but didn't see anyone who the smell could belong to. Besides, she hadn't been in Neptune for over six years. Someone would have mentioned it to him if she was back. Of course, he'd just gotten back from a nine month deployment himself and he didn't really have many pen pals aside from Dick and occasionally Mac. Now that he thought about it, there was no way Dick would have mentioned it. Dick wasn't exactly Veronica's biggest fan. Mac would probably have mentioned it, but he hadn't gotten an email from her since the first half of his deployment. That was odd. She usually sent him something every month or so. He'd have to look her up now that he was back.

The smell was gone by the time he finished processing it through. It must have been a trick of the senses.

The guys were trying to decide which chicks to hit on. He glanced around to check things out himself. After all if he was smelling her randomly, it must be time for something, someone tangible. His eyes settled on one of the waitresses leaning over a table wiping it down. Nice ass, he thought. Really nice ass, showed off by the short skirt she was wearing. Hmmm, definitely could be a possibility. Then she stood up and turned and looked right at him.

Blue eyes, blonde hair, really nice ass. Marshmallows and promises. Veronica.

She smiled at him. A warm, real, happy-to-see-you smile that he hadn't seen in over six years- seven really since they hadn't really been on the best terms when she'd left town. It threw him even more off balance. He hadn't expected a smile like that whenever he imagined seeing her again. She'd left and had made no effort to talk to him, so he'd always assumed she was still mad at him. The crowd shifted and their eye contact was broken. Maybe he was hallucinating? Veronica Mars was not in the bar with him right now, he told himself, even as he craned his neck to try to catch a glimpse of her again. It wasn't like she had to try hard to get lost in a crowd, though. Five foot nothing (she always said 5'2", but come on.) made it easy to disappear if she wanted to and sometimes even if she didn't want to.

He looked at his buddies again, shook his head and asked them how many drinks he'd had. He must have had more than he thought if he was imagining her here. They looked at him oddly and reminded him he'd been nursing the same beer all night. "Getting old, Mouth? Forgetting what you're doing? What, the altitude get to you? Should we call a medic?"

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to snark back (It was how he'd earned his call sign after all) but the scent happened again and a familiar perky voice spoke right next to him. His words died in his throat.

"Hi, I'm Amber, your other waitress just went on break, so I'm going to take care of you."

Close up, she looked even better than she had across the bar. Her low cut tank and short jean skirt showed a slightly curvier body than the one he'd known so well. Her hair was about the same with bangs pulled to the side, slightly wavy and liberally sun streaked, it was pulled up at the moment. She looked barely older than the last time she'd been this close. Close enough to touch. Close enough to smell. Marshmallows and Promises.

Wait. Amber? Was she here on a job? That meant he couldn't blow her cover. Hmm.. This could be fun.

He shifted into charming mode and leaned in toward her getting another whiff of her scent. "Well, Amber, what would you recommend from this fine establishment?"

He saw the guys nudge each other as they saw his mood shift and they grinned. They loved to watch him charm the ladies. Usually there were bets placed on how fast he could wrap a chick around his finger. They usually lapped him up. He mentally shrugged, not this one. Veronica noticed his mannerisms change and her smile went up a notch as her eyes glinted. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

She leaned in too. "Well, I usually recommend Sex on the Beach to pretty boys like you, but you look like you're due for a Screaming Orgasm."

His eyes went dark as he flashed back to sex on the beach and screaming orgasms with this woman in front of him. The slight flush on her cheeks told him she was remembering too. He shifted slightly to cover his growing erection and couldn't come up with a rejoinder before she smirked at him and moved on to take the other guys' orders. Then she looked at him once before she left the table.

"Why don't you surprise me. Seems like you're good at that." She smiled that same real smile she had when they'd locked eyes across the bar and then pushed her way back through the crowd and he eyes following her the whole way.

This was surreal. He really had no idea how he was supposed to be feeling. She'd left him behind. Sure, she'd given him reasons and they hadn't been together at the time, but she hadn't tried to keep in contact with him at all. Not even on fucking Facebook. And now she was here and acting like someone else, talking about screaming orgasms and sex on the beach and smiling at him. What the hell? How was he supposed to react? How was he supposed to feel. Why was she back? God, he'd missed her. Even these little intrigues of her job when she played someone else. He'd missed all of it, all of her.

During his internal monologue the guys had started giving him crap about striking out with her, but he brushed it off saying the night was young and he'd get her number at least. They didn't need to know he already had her number. Well her old number. If it was the same, he had it.

He'd kept his eyes on her, so he saw her attention shift from entering drink orders into the computer to one of the bartenders who was heading out on break. He knew her body language and knew this guy was the real reason she was here. She took last look at the door and then loaded her tray and headed back to his table. She gave the guys their drinks and put a glass of scotch straight up in front of him. He picked it up and sipped. She'd remembered his favorite.

She smiled, but he knew she was focused on the bartender now and not on him. He met her eyes and for a second he thought she might say something, then she smiled and walked away dropping a drink at another table and then pulled her phone out and sent a text.

He jerked, surprised, when his phone vibrated in his pocket a second and pulled it out. She'd texted him?

"If I'm not back in 5 minutes, call my dad. And the cops."

His head shot up to where she'd been standing, but of course, she was already gone. Shit. Wait. Did she just ask for backup? Who was this new Veronica? He needed to know. But he needed to make sure she was ok too. And he needed to know what she was playing at.

He got up telling the guys that he was going to the bathroom. Then he glanced around to make sure no one was watching and ducked through the door that he was sure she'd gone through.

He moved stealthily and tried to listen. He was glad he had remained silent because he came upon Veronica quicker than he'd expected. She had a small camera out and glanced over her shoulder at him in warning. The bartender was by the back door in the middle of a drug deal and it looked like a cop was selling it to him. Woah. Not your average cheating spouse here. Then the cop glanced around and moved away. The bartender started making his way back towards them. Veronica spun and threw herself into Logan's arms and kissed him. He knew it was a cover but didn't care. He kissed her back with all the longing that he'd had for five, no six years since he'd last kissed her. She tasted the same, felt the same, even with those slightly bigger curves, smelled the same. Veronica. Home. Veronica. Home.

"Amber. Geez. Can't you wait til after your shift?" The bartender had walked back and found them.

Veronica pulled back from Logan, but turned in his arms and slipped hers around his waist. "Sorry, Steve. My man here, just got back from deployment. We've just missed each other. It's been a while." And she looked up at Logan as she spoke and smiled. Her real Veronica smile, not her Amber one. She knew about the Navy. She knew he'd been deployed. A warmth that had been building since he'd seen her was growing even bigger. She had kept track of him. She'd cared enough to find out or ask someone.

"Ah. Cool man. You should get back to work, though, Amber. I'll have to tell Jack if you're not back in 3 minutes."

"Oh! Yeah. Thanks for covering for me. I'll be right back in." Perky, fake Amber voice was back. All he wanted to do was get her alone and find out what was going on. Well that and get her naked,

She watched the bartender walk back out to the bar and then looked up at Logan. She didn't pull away from him, though, which he thought was interesting. And enjoyable.

"Logan, I really want to talk to you, but I do need to finish up my shift. I am actually earning good tips tonight." She smiled at him again and started to pull away. He let her go reluctantly, but kept hold of her hand. Part of him was worried that she was going to disappear if he let go. But she said she wanted to talk and she was looking him in the eye with no evasions.

"Veronica." He started.

"No, I really do have to get back and we're going to need a long time to talk. Can we meet tomorrow?" Veronica said squeezing his hand.

"How late are you working tonight? I drove my own car here, so I can stay even if the guys are going to leave." There was no way he'd be able to sleep tonight and wait to talk to her.

"I'm off at 11:30, but I need to get back to the office to transfer those files and get the information to the people who need it."

"I'll wait. I can come with you." It was a tiny test. See if she'd let him come along. She'd already trusted him enough tonight to ask for backup tonight. Maybe it would extend to this?

She looked thoughtful. "Sure. If you want to." What? Really. Now he really needed to know what was going on with her. And what she wanted to talk to him about. There was no way he'd be able to wait for tomorrow. No fucking way. This had to be a fever dream or something. Maybe he'd crashed his plane and hit his head?

Then she pulled her hand out of his and headed back towards the bar. But just as she'd stepped away, she pivoted back. And kissed him again. Not a cover this time. Just because she wanted to. She pulled back after a minute or five minutes, he wasn't really sure, and smiled at him again. "Sorry. I just really missed doing that." And then she walked away leaving him standing there having no idea what had just happened and no idea what was going on.

It was 11:40 when she walked out of the bar. He was leaning against his car waiting for her.

He'd had an hour and a half to try to figure this out and was still completely confused about what was going on. He felt like he had whiplash. Being back from deployment was always a bit weird. Having access to a car and food and culture. Now he was adding in Veronica and his mind was racing. He needed to hear what she had to say.

And there she was. Studded shoulder bag that he knew from freshman year of college. Smiling at him. Walking up to him. She gestured to a black Prius parked not to far from his car. "That's mine. Do you want to follow me or do you know where Dad's new office is?"

"I'll follow you. Text me the address in case we get separated, though." As though he'd let that happen. There was no way. She pulled out her phone and texted him and then walked over to her car.

He followed her car closely. Then pulled up to a building where he saw the familiar Mars Investigations logo. He got out and met her at the door. She was pulling her keys out and punching numbers into a electric keypad as well. "Mac." She explained, gesturing at the keypad.

He kept following her, not really saying anything,. She'd said she wanted to talk. He would hear what she said before deciding what he wanted to say. He wandered around the office while she booted up a computer and started moving files from her camera to the computer. Then she started typing and was pretty much ignoring him, in full PI mode he'd seen more times that he could count.

"Dad moved here when the 09er opened. They raised the rent on the old office to get the old lessees out so that they could turn them into fancy lofts." She was still typing. "There's a Keurig over there if you want some coffee.' He went and made two cups just for something to do. When he placed the cup he'd made for her next to her hand she glanced up and said. "Thanks. I'm almost done."

"No rush." He said. And then he sat down on the old couch and watched her. Five minutes later. She'd finished and picked up the coffee and sat next to him on the couch.

"So." She said and sipped her coffee. She smiled at it and them him. "Perfect. One sugar. You remembered." He smiled back and then just looked at her.

"I came back about two months ago. I finished at Columbia Law and decided it was time to come home. I loved New York, but I missed home. I missed my dad. Wallace, Mac. And you. I missed you" She looked at him and then back at her coffee.

"Well. I always missed you, but I also needed to figure myself out. Then I was embarrassed and needed to work through everything. I've wanted to come talk to you for a long time, but it never seemed right, and then all of a sudden, it worked to come home. Good timing. I knew you were deployed, so I thought it would give me some time to settle in and then once you got home I'd contact you and we could talk. I was going to call you next week after you'd had a chance to settle back in. But there you were tonight." She was kind of rambling, but she kept his gaze.

"Embarrassed?" he queried.

She shifted to see him more easily on the sofa and then nodded.

"I was a bitch to you. And a pretty shitty girlfriend a lot of the time. I'm embarrassed and ashamed of myself. And I'm sorry for treating you the way I did." He stared at her. This was not what he was expecting. At all. Ever. What?

"I could give you all the excuses. Lilly, Duncan. Junior Year. Aaron. Beaver. Lianne. All of that. I never really dealt with any of it. I just pushed it down and built more walls. The more self sufficient I was, the less likely I was to get hurt. I pushed you away. I'm not saying you were perfect or didn't deserve some of it. But I was a mess and I treated you like crap because of it. It wasn't that I didn't love you. I did. More than I wanted to. You were the only one I let in even part way. But I didn't really deal with my issues with you well either. In some ways I set you up to fail because I didn't trust that I wasn't going to get hurt anyway, At least I had some control over it. When Lilly died and I needed you, you weren't there. You weren't there when I was raped, when I needed my friend." She drew a shuddering breath. "I didn't trust you fully because of that. I was waiting for you to turn on me again. Even when you proved over and over you were there for me. My innermost self just couldn't trust you not to hurt me again."

Again, he felt the vertigo sensation. What the hell. He knew all of this. Had known all of this, but he'd never expected Veronica to see it in herself. It seemed there was more, though. She wasn't done.

"When I left here after freshman year, I needed to be away from everything. I kept in touch with Mac and Wallace and my dad, of course. I had done so many crappy things. But I'd done good too. It was hard to reconcile. But I was not okay with putting you all in danger, which was what I was doing. I put all of you, the four people I love the most in the world, in pretty terrible positions in my quest for vengeance."

He did interrupt her there. "Going after Gory was my choice. You warned me. He needed to pay."

"And that was one of my fears. That you would do something worse than Gory, worse than beating up a police car to get put in a holding cell with Mercer- to, I don't know, Avenge me? I couldn't stand the thought of you being killed or thrown in jail for me. My dad lost the election. Mac pissed off a secret society, Wallace was shocked with a dog collar. None of it was worth it. None. So I left." She stood up to pace.

"I got the call from Stanford asking if I wanted the spot and the scholarship and I took it. After a few months up there I decided on Psychology as my major and in the course of my studies, I met a pretty amazing professor. She really helped me and eventually suggested her mentor as a therapist. Which is, of course, where all of this comes from. I've dealt with most of my issues, though my trust issues are sometimes still there. I'm still me, after all." She smiled at him and then sat down again.

"My final year at Columbia I decided to come home. I knew you were stationed near by. I wanted to tell you all this. I want to have you in my life again. I know it's been a long time and I know that I treated you terribly. I'd like to be friends. Well. Since I'm sharing my guts with you tonight, I want more than friends, but if friends is all you're willing to give me, I'll take it."

And then she stopped talking and looked at him. "I know this was a lot. I'm sure you have things to say to me as well. I'm fine if you want to take some time to think. Take whatever you need. I just needed you to know that I'm sorry and that you didn't deserve to be treated the way you were.. I came back for me, but I want you in my life again."

Logan got up this time and went to get another cup of coffee. It was almost one am at this point and his body was not really accustomed to this time zone yet. Not to mention he just needed something to do with his hands. The Navy had gotten rid of many of his twitches, but this situation was one that he had never had before. She was talking to him about her feelings. Veronica Mars was talking to him about her feelings. It was amazing. And scary. And he needed his conversation to keep going. Not that he'd really contributed much to the talk yet. It was going to be his turn soon. he sipped his coffee and walked around the room again. He felt her eyes on him, staring, waiting.

"First of all, I don't need time. I'm happy you're back and I want you in my life, too." She smiled at him brilliantly and he paused. Taking her in.

"Thank you for telling me all this. Thank you for trusting me with it now. I know that it isn't easy. But I need to apologize too. I didn't make it easy for you to trust me. I knew how you were. I knew that you'd find things out, but I just wanted you to trust me. In some ways I felt that it was punishment for how I treated you, I was a huge part of why you didn't trust people in the first place. Shelly's party. Junior year. My alibi. I got so mad when you didn't trust me, but I really never gave you reason to. I was messed up too. My mom. Aaron. Lilly, Felix.. I understand why you didn't trust me- didn't trust anyone. We were a couple of messed up kids. I don't want to say "bygones" because I think that diminishes what we had and what we went through, but I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're talking to me like this. I'm really glad you kissed me earlier. I missed you and I missed that. You can use me as backup and/or kissing partners anytime you want." He grinned at her.

Veronica stood up and walked over to where he was standing and picked up his hands. He drew her into his arms and hugged her. She rested her head on his chest and they both sighed.

He didn't know what all this meant, but he did know that Veronica was here and in his arms and talking to him again. This was good. This was great. It had been less than six hours since he'd seen her in that bar and here they were, friends again. Maybe more. They'd have to see if they worked as not so messed up, responsible adults.


	6. The Daddy Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the November 2014 VMficrecs Challenge- "Sweetie, What did you bury in the garden?"- Veronica wants to know what her daughter buried in the garden. Love, Fluff, Puppies. Short Oneshot- Post Movie

Written for VMFICRECS November challenge-6d. "Sweetheart, what did you bury in the garden?" Rob Thomas owns all, I'm just borrowing some characters.

"Sweetheart, what did you bury in the garden?" Veronica said walking in to the house. "Because whatever it is, the puppy is busy digging it back up."

Her five year old little girl popped up and ran outside. "Nooooooo."

Veronica rolled her eyes at the drama and followed the little blonde back outside. She was curious to see what it was that was so important.

Veronica found the little girl kneeling in the freshly dug earth , scolding the border collie puppy who was now rolling in the dirt she had dug up. They had piles all over the yard from the puppy digging. The puppy did better when they were able to take her out for long runs, but Southern California had been hit by El Nino this year and it had been raining. A lot. Which of course meant that both the little girl and the puppy were now covered in mud. She shrugged her shoulders, that's what baths were for. What she was really curious about was exactly what it was that Nora had buried.

"Honey. What do you have there that you don't want the dog to get." She asked.

"It's my Daddy box. And it can't come out until he's home." The little girl was almost, but not quite, in tears.

"Your Daddy box? What's in that, sweetie?" Veronica suddenly realized where all of the missing toys had been for the last five and a half months. There was a small rubbermaid (thank God, she'd decided to go with something that was waterproof) bin sitting half in and half out of the hole the puppy had dug. Veronica wasn't quite sure how the dog had been able to pull it out, but then she still wasn't sure how the dog had gotten into the closed door of the pantry to dig through the trash. The puppy's antics were a mystery that she might never solve.

"It's my box with all the things that Daddy's loves to play with me. I didn't want him to be sad that I got to play with them while he was gone, so I put them in my Daddy box and buried them until he comes home." Nora was digging the hole bigger but it kept falling in on itself due to the muddiness of the ground. The little girl was getting visibly frustrated. Veronica looked down and was glad she was wearing old jeans. She pulled the box all the way out and was relieved that it seemed to have held up for the time it had been buried in the yard.

She pulled her little girl in and gave her a big hug. "Honey, how about this. Daddy will be home in how many days?"

"Eleven Days." Nora recited from looking at the countdown calendar they had on the fridge and the one in her room and the one in Veronica's office.

"That's right, eleven days. so how about we put this box in the garage under a tarp and you'll still be able to tell Daddy that you saved the toys for him." She couldn't wait to share this story with Logan, it was one of the sweetest things that her daughter had done this deployment. And that was saying a lot. The kid had walked around with a stuffed "Daddy" for the first two months and still slept with it. She insisted on a picture every morning of her outfit and a video every night to tell him about her day. She was amazingly open with her feelings and stubborn enough to insist on how she wanted to deal with Daddy being gone for so long. Logan had started doing the same picture and videos for Nora too. Pretty funny since he pretty much wore the same thing every day. You know, uniform and all.

The kid was an amazing mix of the two of them. Her hair, his eyes, her ears (thank god), his ability to express emotions, her size. Every day she did something that made Veronica thank Logan for convincing her that they could be good parents. Having Nora had changed the way that Veronica looked at the world and looked at Logan. He had been her 100% partner every step of the way. Thinking about what his reaction was going to be about the "Daddy box", she decided she'd let Nora tell him about it. He'd melt into a puddle of goo when he heard, the marshmallow.

This deployment had been the first that Nora really remembered. They'd talked about it constantly once he had been informed. How Daddy would be gone for 6 months. How they would only be able to see him when he called them. It was a lot for a five year old to take, but she'd held up pretty well aside from the requisite daily photos and videos. Veronica knew Logan loved the emails he got daily from them. It helped him to feel like he still knew what was going on in their lives. They had decided that he was going to chose to discharge when his commitment was up the next time, so this was, hopefully, his last long deployment. They hadn't talked about it with Nora yet, just in case things went to hell in the world and he was needed.

Veronica was snapped out of her thoughts when Nora agreed that they could put it in the garage.

"But Momma, we need to make sure we don't get dirt on Daddy's car. He'd be really sad." And then she tried to pick up the box and slipped into the hole. Veronica pulled her out of the hole and then helped carry the box into the garage, safely away from the BMW. Nora was right, Logan wouldn't want any dirt on his car.

"Can you tell me about what you put in the Daddy box, Sugarpuss?" She pulled out her phone and started recording as Nora opened the box.

"Say hi to Daddy, honey."


	7. The Window

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica is intrigued by her hot neighbor. Gee, who could it be?- Fluff AU- Non movie compliant Written for December 2014 VMficrecs challenge- Ooption 1 b. Because of how the apartment is laid out/due to neighboring buildings, A and B can just see into each other's apartment.

Disclaimer- no infringement intended.

Written for vmficrecs December 2014 challenge-Option 1.b. Because of how the apartment is laid out/due to neighboring buildings, A and B can just see into each other's apartment.

\- AU- Non movie compliant

Much like the Muggle Prime Minister and his office painting, Veronica had long since trained herself not to look out her hallway window. It was best to ignore the fact that she could see into the neighbor's apartment, especially since the late middle aged couple who lived there liked to walk around sans clothing. She'd realized that if she could see them, they could see her when she'd caught Mrs. Exhibitionist peaking in one day as she got home. They'd had a stare down that Veronica had won, of course. She hadn't caught them there again, but she was always mindful of the window.

Since it was New York City, she didn't actually have to talk to the neighbors and she simply walked past them if they happened to cross on the sidewalk. You could be as anonymous as you chose in NYC. It was one of the reasons she loved it She regularly walked by Jon Stewart and always had to refrain from fangirling over him. Luckily, growing up with a best friend who's parents were movie stars helped tamper her reaction. She knew that he wouldn't want to be accosted on the street. Plus, that would be so un-New Yorker of her. Live and let live. Mostly.

For all her ignoring of the Exhibitionist's, she did notice them loading a moving truck and a "for rent" sign go up next door one day as she came in from class. As she let herself into her apartment, she wondered briefly if the devil you know is better than the one you don't when it came to window that can see into your apartment. Then she grabbed a beer and her latest law text and sat down to study, forgetting about the apartment next door.

It wasn't until a few weeks later when she saw another moving van when she realized she'd soon have new neighbors. Veronica heard the low bass of music playing the next day, and approved of the selection, but it wasn't till over two weeks later that she caught her first glimpse of the neighbor though the window. All she saw was an incredibly toned back and running shorts walking down the hallway. Hmmm.. Interesting. She started to notice the window more and more over the next few days. It had been a while since she'd been curious about something like this, but the back had been really toned.

I need to get out a bit more if a 15 second look at some guy's back is doing it for me, she thought to herself. Maybe I should just go over and introduce myself and mention the windows. Or is that weird? "Nice to meet you, By the way, I can ogle you through my window, just make sure you ogle me back." Fun conversation. Maybe she should out a sign up. "If you can see this, I can see you." Nope. Not at all creepy.

A few days later she got to see the front of his torso through the window. He'd evidently come from the shower since he was toweling dry his hair, so she still couldn't see his face, but DAMN was the front even better than the back. I really need to get laid. And to meet this guy. Maybe at the same time? Or would that be messy with a neighbor. God, I'd hope so.

The next day she caught sight of who she thought was her sexy neighbor coming out of his building, but he went the opposite way from where she was going and she had a study group to get to. She had to fight the urge to follow him. You don't do that anymore, Veronica. Remember?!

At this point she just wanted to see his face. Maybe he was overcompensating for his face with the amazing body. Or maybe he was really dumb. Not that she really wanted to talk to him. Just to look at him And to run her hands over his muscles. And maybe lick all over the toned skin. It has been way too long. This is ridiculous.

She'd been purposely not changing into her normal study clothes (sweats and an old Hearst T- Shirt) lately and when she caught herself lingering by the window one night she grabbed her phone and called Mac to see if she was available to meet for drinks. She needed a smack of reality that only Mac could bring.

"So you're obsessing over your hot neighbor and want to stalk him." Mac summed up after listening to Veronica spew all the garbage that's been in her brain for the last month. "This is new."

"I'm telling you, Mac, the guy's body is ridiculous. Like abercrombie model only REAL." Veronica took another long drink of her cocktail. "I want to go all PI on him and figure it all out. I just want to see his face at this point."

"So go and knock. Or stand by your window and wait." Mac said taking a sip of her whiskey. "Veronica, it is not like you to be coy."

"I know. But I imagine that it could get awkward if I jump his bones and then we stop and we still can see into each other's place. I'm not giving up my place. It's rent controlled!" Veronica looked around the bar to see if there were any prospects there to help her get over her itch with the neighbor. Nothing interesting. Ugh. She ordered another round.

"Veronica. Just talk to the guy!" Mac sounded exasperated and then launched into a story about her crazy techie coworkers.

Veronica was lingering by the window about to go to bed after saying goodbye to Mac. When she saw him walk by his window. Sadly he had a shirt on, but then he looked up and caught her staring. Whatever she was holding, she couldn't tell you what it was, dropped to the floor.

"Logan?!" and she saw him mouth her name, too. What. The. Hell. Super hot neighbor guy was Logan Echolls? She saw him open his window and she finally moved after having frozen.

"Logan?"

"Veronica?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked first.

"I'm at Colombia. I'm in my 3rd year of Law school." She answered.

"I'm working at the Times. I'm a reporter. I just moved from LA. Wanted a change. I knew you were in the City somewhere, but I didn't think we'd run into each other." He said leaning against the window frame.

"I've been in this building for a year and a half. The roommate thing didn't work out for me, and a friend of mine was moving out so I got to move in." She couldn't believe this. Logan was standing in front of her. And he looked good. Damn good. Broad shoulders, easy demeanor, he seemed lighter. It had been a long six years since they had seen each other. Both of them had transferred away from Hearst after freshman year, him to UCLA and her to Stanford. They'd left each other on ok terms, but things had been cool. Freshman year had been rough. Ha. The last four years of their lives had been full of highs and lows. The highs being their love for each other and the lows being their love for each other. And then there was the rapes, murders, and mafia. They'd both needed to get away and their friendship or relationship or whatever it was had gotten lost in that need.

She realized they'd been talking through their windows for forty five minutes when she realized that she was freezing. "Do you want to come over and have a drink?" She asked before she could talk herself out of it. She really was incredibly happy to see him. Especially to see him happy, healthy and HOT. Really, really hot.

He looked at his watch."Actually, I need to get to work. I have a article to write that I need to get in before morning. Rain check?"

Veronica was more disappointed than she expected, "Oh. Sure. You know where to find me." Veronica backed away. "Good luck with your article." Maybe he wasn't interested in getting caught up with her. Or maybe he has an article he needs to finish, Veronica. How about you give him the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word. "It was good to see you, Logan." She smiled at him and went to close her window.

"You too, Veronica." He smiled back at her.

Veronica settled into bed. Holy crap. Logan. She lay awake thinking about it and how good he'd looked and how good his body looked for a long time. She had some interesting dreams that night.

Four days later, she hadn't been home much. She'd been incredibly busy with midterms and dreadful group assignments and yet thoughts of Logan kept intruding. She hadn't seen him in the little bit of time she'd been home, every time she'd walked past the window, his apartment had been dark. They hadn't exchanged numbers or anything and she was sure he had a new number, so even if he'd or she'd wanted to talk, they couldn't. She sighed and kept walking to her room and collapsed on the bed.

Four days after that, she figured he didn't want to talk to her. It seemed improbable that they could miss each other for over a week and so she decided that he must not be interested in catching up. She was hurt, but not surprised. It had been a long time since they'd been friends.

Day ten had her texting Mac about what she should do and day eleven had her on the couch with a pint of Half Baked. She was heading back to take a shower and glanced out the window resentfully when she stopped in her tracks. There was a sign on his window and it was written in his still familiar handwriting.

Been out of town on assignment. Keep missing you. Call me.

Does that mean he hadn't changed his number? She grabbed her phone and scrolled to his name. The picture there made her laugh. She'd imported his number and name every time she'd gotten a new phone simply because she couldn't stand to delete him even though she figured he'd changed his number. So the picture she had was from early on in their freshman year of college and he looked like a baby. I wonder if I can sneak a picture of his abs for his contact photo. Then she shook her head and decided to text him instead of calling. It was safer.

I'm taking a break from studying tomorrow if you want to join me at O'Malley's down the street. - V

A few minutes later, her phone dinged and her heart leapt.

8 Ok? I'm often late. I'll let you know if something comes up at work. 

Just let me know. 8 is good.


	8. Unspoken -Part 1 - Veronica

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "She hadn't seen or spoken to Logan for nine years," but that didn't mean they hadn't communicated. Vmficrecs October prompt challenge- "Epic How?" Movie spoilers

It had been over nine months since she had bought a burner phone. Nine months since she'd done anything remotely on the down low. She'd been obsessing about how to handle this for days. Weeks. She'd seen the date coming and known that she needed, no wanted, to acknowledge it. She didn't want to call. She couldn't hear his voice, even on voicemail, and stay strong, but she did want to let him know… What exactly was she planning on telling him? Would he call back? Would he even know that it was her? Maybe he'd think it was a wrong number. A text gone wrong. Or some random girl who he'd given his number. She'd risk it, though. She wasn't really doing this for him (Yes she was.) but there was no way that she'd get through the day without contacting him in some way. She had already become just like all the other women in his life and left him. She needed him to know that she was thinking about him.

She finally settled on simple. No punctuation, no happy faces.

Happy Birthday

I miss you

She thought about ditching the phone right away, but something inside her needed to see if he'd respond. Instead she powered it down and shoved it into the bottom of her messenger bag and walked into her class. It was her long day, three classes and a photography assignment for the school newspaper at a women's soccer game versus Cal State Long Beach. It wasn't until almost nine hours later that she let herself check the phone.

As soon as she powered it up, she saw that he'd responded.

I miss you too.

And so it began. On dates that were eventful in their lives, they'd exchange a few lines of text. On her birthday, the text was the same as hers was on his. It came from an unknown number to her regular phone but she'd known it was him, just as he'd known it was her.

Happy Birthday

I miss you

I miss you too

On the fifth anniversary of Lilly's death, she sent him a photo of a bottle of champagne in the sand on a beach. He responded in kind a few minutes later with a photo of a silly shot glass and a bottle of scotch.

And so it went, birthdays, Christmas, Lilly's death date, a photo now and then but usually one or two sentences. Both seemed to understand that talking wasn't allowed, but the need to share life events with someone who had been a part of their lives for so long was there. The need for that tentative connection was strong and, at least for Veronica, helped to stem her guilt about leaving. She still considered it the best decision at the time. She had cost so many people so much. Wallace, her dad, Mac, Logan. All of them had been hurt or placed in danger by her need for justice. They did it out of love for her, she knew, but she couldn't live with another loved one dying or hurting because of her.

Even during the time in Sophomore and Junior years of high school when they were enemies, he had been there. She could see him, even if it was to glare at or verbally spar with. Same with Senior year when they were working together, but hurt feelings were there on both sides. Even after their last, final breakup, she'd still be able to see him on campus. Since she'd left Hearst, the number of times she'd turned to tell him something or picked up the phone to call him about something ludacris she'd seen were innumerable. These small texts on important days were a small comfort to the ache, now dulled by time and distance.

The day she graduated Stanford she sent him a picture of her cap and gown from her regular phone instead of the burner phone. He responded fifteen minutes later.

Congratulations.

And then he included a picture of his own cap and gown. She smiled. Proud of him for finishing something that he'd never really wanted to begin with. She'd had to convince him to go with her to Hearst in the first place. At least she could feel that she'd been some kind of positive for him.

You too.

Veronica, Mac and Wallace met in Santa Barbara to celebrate their college graduation. Veronica still hadn't been back to Neptune for more than a weekend to see her dad at the holidays and the three friends wanted to catch up. They went on a vineyard trek complete with a limo (Wallace had suggested the biking tour, but Veronica and Mac had just stared at him.)to take them to various wineries. She was feeling pretty tipsy when she felt her phone vibrate.

It was a beautiful picture of a sunrise with palm trees and surfers in the background. It had to be Hawaii. She quickly took a picture of her wine glass with Mac and Wallace in the background. They were sitting on a patio outside their third vineyard.

What did I tell you at Alterna-prom?

Veronica stared at her phone. This was not the norm. They didn't go back and forth or ask deep questions. Especially not questions like that. But the question triggered her near perfect memory of that conversation. The song in the background, the smell of booze and sweat and pheremones, the way his eyes had stared into hers so intensely.

She also had a near perfect memory of the morning after. Her nerves and how hard it had been to knock, the way he'd leaned against the door. How It had been such a blow to know that he could say such powerfully beautiful things to her and then turn around and fuck someone else. It had fed directly into her insecurities when it came to their physical relationship and had definitely been one of the reasons she had reacted so strongly to finding out it had been Madison (Lucifer) he had slept with when they were broken up Freshman year at Hearst. It had been their undoing. Her knee jerk reaction to run from her problems and his to try to fuck them away.

She glanced at Wallace and Mac, deep in a conversation about some guy Parker had been dating for a year and how long it would take them to get engaged. She walked a little down a path that led to some grape vines and sat on a bench there.

That we were Epic.

Ding. She quickly silenced her phone and glanced around. Was she really tipsy enough for this unspoken conversation?

Epic how? She laughed. Yep. That was the script. It had been her line, though.

Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC.She sighed over the words as she typed them. They still tore at her heart.

Wow. I'm good.

She laughed and then looked up as Wallace called her name. She dropped her phone into her purse and walked over to him and climbed into the limo for the next stop on their tour. The following morning she woke up and tiptoed over to her stuff trying not to wake Mac and Wallace. She she swiped her phone on, she saw he'd texted her again.

I'm sorry.

She smiled sadly and typed even though she knew it was super early morning in Hawaii.

Me too.

When he joined the Navy he sent her a picture of his enlistment papers. She desperately wanted to call him to find out the story, but didn't. The next time she sent him a picture (her tiny apartment window in New York) it took him two weeks to respond.

No cells at OCS, Nice view.

After that, things got hectic for her and evidently for him too. The texts lessened in frequency to birthdays and Lilly again. Law school was demanding and so was the Navy. He usually texted her before he went on deployment so that she'd know that he wouldn't get her texts. He always included his email in the text so she had a way to get something to him if she needed to. She'd only used it once- when Backup had died at a lovely old age of fourteen.

It had been nine years when she was standing in Piz's work office and saw the news about Bonnie Deville/ Carrie Bishop. Nine years since she'd seen or spoken to Logan. They'd never once called to talk. It was the Unspoken Rule. But she wanted to call him. To help him. To tell him she knew that he'd never hurt anyone like that. That she was finally able to trust herself that the faith she had in him was real.

When her phone rang, she stared at it and instinctively hit the ignore button since she was sitting in a law office waiting for her second interview.

When he called again immediately, she got up and walked to a hallway and took a deep breath.

"So, What's new with you?" She said for lack of any other greeting.

"I need your help, Veronica." Came the voice she hadn't heard in nine years. He sounded the same. She had unknowingly been reading all of his texts with his voice in her head for all these years.

"I… Don't really do that anymore." She said, thinking fast about if she'd be able to get a flight to Neptune tonight or if she'd have to wait until tomorrow.

"Just hear me out."


	9. Unspoken -Part 2 - Logan

A/N: Logan's POV- Those nine years-

When he woke that morning he rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. He hated his birthday. Why shouldn't he? He had no family, no girlfriend, no one who really knew him aside from a drunk, high party boy best friend. He sighed. No pity parties on your birthday, man, as he rolled out of bed and into his shower. He really should move out of this place. Maybe a house was a good birthday present to himself.

He went to his classes, but no one knew it was his birthday, of course. As he walked into his English Lit class his phone rang. It was his accountant wishing him happy birthday. He mentioned that he might be starting to look for some real estate and the guy launched into how great that would be. Awesome. His accountant was the first person to wish him happy birthday. Fantastic. He hung up and put his phone on silent for class.

When he walked out of class, flirting with the cute redhead who always sat in front of him, he pulled his phone out to call Dick to see if he wanted to hit the waves that evening and saw that he had a text from an unknown number. Logan wasn't stupid. He didn't give his number out to randoms. After what had happened with that fucking reporter, he was even more cautious. If he wanted to hook up with someone, he went to a bar or the coffee shop or whatever and took the girl back to his place from there. No numbers were usually exchanged. Sometimes, he'd take her number, but usually he just moved on.

Happy Birthday

I miss you

He stared at the text. His brain taking a second to catch up with his heart, which was pounding a mile a minute. Veronica. It had to be Veronica. It wasn't her number. She'd probably used a burner phone. He stared at the words. Happy Birthday. She remembered. I miss you. She missed him. He didn't know if he should be angry or not. After all, it had been her choice to leave. Her choice, no discussion. He was glad that she had at least told him she was leaving and not just simply disappeared. Like Lilly, Like his mom.

Happy Birthday

I miss you

He had been angry at her. Furious, even. When she'd told him she was leaving. It was after her FBI internship, she'd been back a few days when she called him and asked to meet him for coffee. He was secretly (ha) hoping that she was going to tell him that she and Piz had broken up and that she wanted him back. His hopes were partially right. She and Piz had broken up. Right after the confrontation in the cafeteria with Gory, in fact. But she didn't want to get back together. She was leaving Neptune. Transferring to Stanford. He heard all of her reasons: She was out of control. She had put her loved ones in danger. She needed a fresh start. But all he heard was that she was leaving HIM. They weren't even together and she was breaking up with him. He'd simply gotten up and walked away from her. Glancing back one time to see her holding her head in her hands and staring at the table where they'd been sitting. There was nothing he could say to change her mind. Nothing he could do. She had stayed in Neptune for him and for her dad for Freshman year, but now she was getting what she wanted. Out. Away. Gone.

He had gotten very very drunk that night. He'd stayed that way for a while. He hadn't seen her again.

But he was sure in his gut that this was from Veronica. It wasn't a random text. It was from Veronica and she was thinking about him. He smiled. Maybe he did have someone who gave a damn about him. At least a little. He thought about calling the number, but he knew she wouldn't pick up. If she wanted to talk to him, she would have called. She'd used a burner phone, so she might have already tossed it, but he didn't think so. So he simply responded:

I miss you too.

In the days leading up to her birthday he debated with himself. Call her normal number? Text the burn phone number she had texted him? He decided to tell her the same way and the same thing that she had told him.

Happy Birthday

I miss you

Sent from a burner phone to her normal number. He didn't want to risk her not having the burner phone she'd used to text him any more. He did miss her. She'd been such a major part of his life for so long. It had felt so wrong to not have her there at all. The years of the Fab Four had been the best of his life. Aside from Lilly breaking up with him constantly and his dad beating him when he was in town, anyway. He had Duncan and Veronica and Lilly as his family. Even after Lilly had been killed and he'd been in such a dark place, he'd been able to see Veronica. Sure, he'd been a complete jackass to her, but she'd still been there. After his mom had jumped and he'd stopped the hostilities, she'd been in journalism class snickering at his sarcastic comments and razzing him to write his stories.

Then there had been the Camelot. His utter terror when he'd heard the male voice come on the phone after she'd been so scared. And then she'd kissed him. And then he'd kissed her. And everything stopped and reformed. It hadn't been like he hadn't known that she was hot. Especially with the boots and the clothes. She'd just always been off limits. And then she wasn't and she was his secret girlfriend.

And then it wasn't secret, but it wasn't real either. And then she was apologizing again for thinking for a second that he could have hurt Lilly. But he was reeling from betrayal. His dad, his mom, Lilly. Veronica. Plus the murder charges. Was it any wonder they hadn't made it?

And then there was Senior year. What a cluster. But again, she'd been there throughout. And he'd been there for her. And then Alterna Prom. She'd never told him what he'd said to her that made her come back that morning. It was one of the things that they had never spoken of, but probably should have. Definitely should have. It was all a blur until the elevator doors shut on her pained face as she walked away from him once again. Only this time it seemed he deserved it. I wish I knew what I'd said so that I could say it again and get her to come back again.

The burner phone buzzed in his pocket.

I miss you too

He was sitting on the deck of his beach house on the fifth anniversary of Lilly's death. He had a stupid shot glass from his last trip to Vegas and a bottle of scotch when his phone beeped somewhere behind him. His immediate thought was "Veronica."

He went to find his phone and saw that it was a picture this time. He waited a second while it loaded and then smiled softly. Champagne on the beach. That was a fitting tribute as well. He took a picture of the shot glass (she'd know) and scotch and sent it back.

Three days before he graduated Hearst, he was picking up his cap and gown and pulled out his phone. He'd missed a text at some point. Veronica Mars flashed across his screen. He almost dropped his phone. They'd been going back and forth every so often for the last three years, but it had always been burner phones. Some subterfuge that she needed, he guessed. But It seemed she was fine with him knowing for sure (like there had ever been a doubt.) that it was Logan and Veronica communicating. He opened the message, hoping it was something that he could handle. It was a picture of her cap and gown. She'd done it as well. Again, as if there had been a doubt. He did wonder what her plans were now, hopefully to come back to Neptune, although his plans might take him away at the same time her's were bringing her back.

Congratulations

He included a picture of the cap and gown he'd just picked up.

You too.

On the beach on the North Shore of Oahu having just spent hours surfing some pretty awesome waves when he took a picture and sent it to Veronica. It was beautiful here. Mac had told him in passing that she, Wallace and Veronica were meeting in the middle of California to drink lots of wine and celebrate graduating. He knew they'd be together now. Sure enough, a few minutes later he got a response with a picture of a half drunk wine glass and several others in the background. He could just make out Mac and Wallace in the shadows behind the glass. He wondered if she was tipsy yet. He took a risk. He's been wondering the answer to this question for four years.

What did I tell you at Alterna-prom?

He waited. Unsure if she would answer. Not knowing if she would simply ignore him. His phone buzzed.

That we were Epic.

He vaguely remembered her saying something about that the next morning. But there was no way that had been it. That "Epic" had made her come back the next morning.

Epic how?.

Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC.

Seriousl, Logan? You'd actually said that? And she had left. Only to come back, but not soon enough. Her knee jerk reaction to run from her emotions and his to try to fuck them away had always been their undoing. And he'd been right. They had spanned years. Maybe not continents yet, though his next plans would probably take care of that. Lives ruined. Ha. Bloodshed. Double ha.

But still. That was a damn good speech. He was surprised that she hadn't jumped him right there in the middle of AlternaProm for that speech. A lesser woman, or maybe just one who trusted people a bit more, would never have been able to resist such a speech. He had a brief flashback/fantasy where they were in the old suite at the Grande in the middle of AlternaProm and Veronica leapt into his arms and he carried her bride style- no not bride style her legs wrapped around his waist which he spun them into his room and slammed the door on the rest of the world. That is how he'd have reacted to that speech if she'd given it to him. The "if onlies" in their lives would kill him if he started thinking about them. So he went for funny.

Wow. I'm good.

And then he remembered her face as the elevators had closed on her after she'd found Kendal wrapped around him the next morning. Just as he didn't remember the speech, he didn't remember calling Kendal or anything else that night. What a fuck up. Everything would have been different if Kendal hadn't been there. Everything. He laid back in the sand and stared up at the palm trees around him. He could hear Dick shouting in the background as he caught a wave. Finally he picked up his phone again and sent one more message.

I'm sorry.

The next morning he woke early to go out on the water again and saw his phone already had a message.

Me too

When he joined the Navy he sent her a picture of his enlistment papers. He desperately wanted to call and tell her why, but didn't. The next time she sent him a picture (her tiny apartment window in New York) it took him two weeks to respond.

No cells at OCS, Nice view.

After that, things got hectic for him and evidently for her too. The texts lessened in frequency to birthdays and Lilly again. Law school was demanding and so was the Navy. He usually texted her before he went on deployment so that she'd know that he wouldn't get her texts. He always included his email in the text so she had a way to get something to him if she needed to. She'd only used it once- when Backup had died at a lovely old age of fourteen.

It had been nine years when he stood on the deck at his beach house in Neptune and stared at her number on his phone. Nine years since he'd seen or spoken to Veronica. They'd never once called to talk. It was the Unspoken Rule. But he needed to call her. To ask her to help him. To tell him she knew that he'd never hurt anyone like that. That she had faith in him still.

He pressed the call button and waited. It went to voice mail suspiciously fast. Nope. Not okay, Veronica. When he called again immediately, it rang longer this time. He knew she was watching it. Finally, the line clicked open.

"So, What's new with you?" She sounded the same. A little breathless. He had unknowingly been reading all of her texts with her voice in his head for all these years.

"I need your help, Veronica." And it was true. He needed her help. Badly. But he just kinda needed her too.

"I… Don't really do that anymore." She said. But he needed her to do it again. To believe in him, to help him.

"Just hear me out."


End file.
